Counting my @#$!! Blessings

So what's the technical term for maintaining a zen-like calm throughout an entire pseudo-crisis but then being full of piss and vinegar when it's virtually over? Because whatever that is, I've got. In @#$! spades.

Considering that the strongest drink I'll have access to for hours is Dr. Pepper and that I really don't want to blow an aneurysm, I should try to refocus. To that end, here are the things that did not suck about Blackout 2006:

• I spent more time with my parents than I probably ever will again. And I don’t even mean that in a snarky way (that’s a different post). I see my parents, especially my mother, all the time, but it’s usually in a “hi, thanks, see you later” kind of way. The last time I sat around watching Letterman with my mom? I couldn’t tell you. I know they liked having us there, and though it’s hard to think of myself as anyone’s child, as a parent, I can appreciate that. Especially since the visit was over right before we started playing a special flashback edition of sullen, ungrateful child v. exasperated parent.

• My refrigerator is really, really clean. Calculating the value of the food I had to throw away because I was too optimistic about the return of our electricity is now one of the word problems I will never do (right up there with dividing the amount of fees I’ve paid to Netflix by the number of DVDs I’ve rented), but my kitchen is spotless. And considering that I have no food and no energy to go buy any, it’s likely to stay that way for a while.
  

• We did not have to stay with my in-laws, so I’ll probably make it through 2006 without being disowned. There is just not enough Valium in the world for me to make it through four days there without saying something I shouldn’t. Repeatedly. In the better-person-than/there-but-for the-grace-of-God-go-I department, my sister-in-law, her husband, and five of their six kids have stayed with her parents and sister since Saturday, meaning that ten mostly adult people are (STILL!) sharing a three bedroom house. At least I know what to get them all for Christmas: therapy.

• I actually spoke to Lonnie for the first time in too many years. Of course, I think he was only moved to call because he feared that I was twirling around the end of my rope, but still. I talked to Lonnie!